Broomfield City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved using $10,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for vouchers to house the homeless at a local hotel through May 31 in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier this month 27 people, including children, were placed in 15 rooms at TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Broomfield. The cost to house them in rooms through April was $29,160, which came from the block grants and funds from The Refuge, Broomfield FISH and the Broomfield Community Foundation.

Broomfield each year receives a allocation of Community Development Block Grant funding for housing and community development programs that primarily benefit persons of low and moderate-income, and additionally received $164,181 from $5 billion in supplemental Community Development Block Grant funding through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act, according to a memo included in Tuesday’s Council agenda.

“I think this is an exceptional use of CDBG funds,” Ward 1 Councilwoman Elizabeth Law-Evans said during Tuesday’s electronic Council meeting. “I’m happy to support it.”

Thirty households are now being housed through the program, according to the memo.

Deputy City and County Manager Kevin Standbridge said the hotel reported the voucher program has helped keep the business operating, which is an added benefit. Aloft, a Broomfield hotel that originally housed voucher recipients, closed in early April.

TownePlace agreed to a reduced rate, Marrty Dormish, minister of community outreach at The Refuge, has said. The vouchers, which were initially approved through April 30, were not meant to be a one- or two-night solution, he said, but offer a safe, temporary place for people who have no home a chance to “stay at home.”

Ward 3 Councilwoman Jean Lim asked if the hotel would continue to let families stay there through May as the state begins to phase out of the stay-at-home order and people began booking rooms. Standbridge said yes, it’s his understanding the hotel would honor that agreement.

Ward 2 Councilwoman Sharon Tessier, who is also the Housing Advocate Manager at Broomfield FISH, on April 7 said if Gov. Jared Polis should extend the stay-at-home order through May, nonprofits would need to raise an additional $29,160 to cover the cost of the hotel for an additional month. While Polis is lifting the statewide stay-at-home order on Sunday and shifting to a “safer at home” strategy, he has stated Coloradans still need to limit their social contact for months.

The nonprofits are continuing to raise money for the program. Donations can be made at bit.ly/2Xkb68b.

Broomfield FISH is working with residents benefiting from the voucher program to help some transition into more permanent affordable housing as this program ends, according to city officials.

Broomfield Public Health Director Jason Vahling on April 3 declared it a medical necessity for hotel vouchers to be used for unhoused residents.

Earlier this month, Dormish estimated there are at least 120 people without a home in the Broomfield area, including those living in their vehicles, people sleeping outside and public school students were were counted last fall as “doubled or tripled up” with friends or family.

Leaders of the effort made it clear this was not an “open call” for the homeless, but rather is for people with ties to Broomfield.

Council on Tuesday also voted to discuss at its next meeting a proclamation urging rent and mortgage moratorium for those who are unable to pay during the COVID-19 emergency.

Ward 2 Councilman William Lindstedt said there are several changes he expects to make to the draft proclamation before the April 28 meeting.